Lone Star Quilting Update (post 7)

The points weren't "it"

I spent three weeks in May looking at the Lone Star project pondering where to proceed next with the quilting. At the start of the fourth week, I decided the issue was that an area I had previously quilted wasn't speaking to me. I had stitched it thinking the lines were more contemporary and modern.

Updated space

I decided to rip out the section of the points. I replaced the stitching with another section of curved lines. I also added an echo around the petal shapes. I liked the change. The quilting still feels whimsical and contemporary. Because of the remainders of the car accident, I have been unable to quilt more than 30 minutes at a time. Quilting causes me so much back pain! I found I'm still not strong enough to accurately hold the ruler.

If I continue with the exercises from the PT, maybe I will have less pain. Maybe I will be able to manage a larger ruler. Then again, maybe where I am today is as good as I am going to get. I don't know. My quilting is not as good as it was before the car accident that happened last September. This knowledge causes me sadness.

Adding lines inside the shape

I was beating myself up for my imperfections. The quilting on this project is turning out nothing like I had imagined. I decided to embrace the imperfect quilting. I gave up on the rulers. I eyed the line spacing and free motion quilted it. I pulled out my chalk pencil and drew shapes/lines until I "saw" a path that I wanted to quilt. Perhaps, the more imperfections I create, the less my eye will see them. 

Project progress at the end of May

I like the feeling the quilting is creating. Perhaps, I will even embrace all the imperfections when I've finished. 

A possibility

In June, I looked at this project; but, I wasn't inspired to work on it. During our flight home from Greece, I thought about what was stopping me. I decided holding the rulers was difficult and that was holding up my inspiration for the filler designs. 

This design is better

The first week that I was home, I was watching an episode of The Quilt Show with Sue Nickles and Pat Holly as guests. Sue was sharing machine quilting with ruler techniques on a domestic machine using her own rulers. Her rulers have a sticky type back on them to make it easier to hold the rulers in place.

This is the quilting design

I purchased her straight line ruler and circle wedge set. The sticky back coating on the ruler makes it easier for me to hold as well as the smaller size fits my hand better. It took me some trial and error also known as ripping to determine which wedge was the best size to quilt the diamonds in the Lone Star. It also took me some time to quilt consistently so that the quilted diamond shapes looked related to one another!

Quilting a straight line

Little by little, I'm making progress. I had hoped I could finish quilting the diamonds by the end of August. I will have the red diamonds quilted by then and likely a good start on the green diamonds. I do plan to keep the project in my line of vision. I plan to work on it for as long a session as my body can handle. I look forward to finishing this project!

Quilting a curve

Making progress on the quilting of the Lone Star quilt was goal number three on my August list. I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework.